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in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father! With what power does the solemn warning, with which our Saviour closes the short and simple history of the wise and foolish Virgins, arrest the attention even of the most thoughtless: Watch: for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh !— How striking is the sentence, which he passed upon the man who came into the feast without the wedding garment: Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Or, lastly, can anything strike more awfully upon a mind disposed to place confidence in the riches and good things of this world, than the solemn exhortation with which he closes the Parable of the rich man? Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.-This manner of applying these simple apologues is as novel as it is impressive: and from the manner, in which these sententious and awful conclusions are engrafted on narratives so simple and inartificial, they are peculiarly calculated to strike even the most inattentive mind.

On the whole, the evidence, which we derive from the Parables to the divine character of our Saviour, is very conclusive. How can we explain on any principle short of his divine character, that our Redeemer should adopt a mode of instruction, at once so singular and so appropriate? And what merely human teacher could lay open the most secret recesses of the heart; and then appeal to the proceedings of the last day, when He, the Son of Man, shall appear in glory as the Judge of mankind? But if we are unwilling to receive the divine character of our Saviour on the internal evidence alone of his Parables, we cannot refuse our belief to those Parables which contain important prophecies; and of which the fulfilment, therefore, bears incontrovertible evidence to the divine character of Him who spoke them. The casting away and dispersion of the Jews for the rejection and crucifixion of our Saviour; the destruction of their city and temple, and the propagation of the religion of the Redeemer through the world, from its beginning as a grain of mustard-seed to its present increase, in which, in some degree, it may be said, that all the nations of the world dwell under the branches of it; and the manner, in which, by the operation of its heavenly doctrines, it has exerted its sanctifying influence over the religion, the morals, and the political relations of the different nations of the earth,-all these things are now matters of history; and although the circumstances of the world and the obstinacy

and perverseness of man made it necessary for the divine wisdom to veil them for a time in a purposed obscurity; yet, when we consider the clear light, which the revolutions of ages and the progress of the divine dispensations have thrown upon these apparently obscure intimations, it affords additional reasons for believing the infinite knowledge and the infinite power of their divine Author; and strengthens the ground on which we acknowledge Him to be the Son of God.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

THIS sublime Prayer, in addition to its many other beauties, contains evidences to the divine character of its Author, which are peculiarly its own and these are derived, from the consideration of the extraordinary manner in which it embodies in its petitions the entire spirit of the doctrines and principles of Christianity; and from the prophetic foresight with which it comprehends its whole history and fortunes to the end of all things.

The Lord's Prayer may be considered as consisting of two principal parts; of which the first has reference to that universal extension of Christianity, to which prophecy teaches us to look forward; the second to the condition and necessities of individual Christians, both spiritual and temporal.

1. In the first division of this Prayer, when we pray to our heavenly Father, that his name may be hallowed, that his kingdom may come, that his will may be done in earth as it is in heaven: our petitions have reference to that universal extension of the religion of the Redeemer, which the word of God has declared in language of the most glorious and animated anticipation.

2. In the second part, when we pray, that God would give us day by day our daily bread ; that he would forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us; that he would not lead us into temptation, but that he would deliver us from evil; our petitions embody everything which is connected with the actual condition of our nature; with our necessities, both spiritual and temporal; with that sense of pardon and forgiveness, of which we all stand in need for our manifold sins and transgressions against our heavenly Father, and which he has promised, for the sake of our Redeemer, to bestow on every contrite and penitent offender; and with that feeling, which especially becomes us, of our great need of help and strength from above, and of the continual assistance of his Holy Spirit, to keep us from falling, and to preserve us from present evil and from everlasting death: and it is evident, that petitions like these,-which display such an intimate knowledge of the wants, the weaknesses, and the necessities of human nature, and of the genius and spirit of Christianity itself, could have been dictated by Him alone, who is the divine Author of our religion, and who knew what was in man. Surely this Prayer,-embodying as it does in itself the very spirit and essence of Christianity, and containing a prophecy of its final triumph,-attests the Divinity of Him who gave it. It was delivered by our divine Master, at a time when his religion scarcely extended beyond his own disciples, and when the knowledge

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